A Man From Planet Earth by Giancarlo Genta

A Man From Planet Earth by Giancarlo Genta

Sometime in the not-too-distant future ... unbeknownst to Earth, the Galaxy is home to a number of spacefaring societies. This confederation enforces a strict protocol forbidding any contact with civilizations that have not yet achieved both a substantial spacefaring capability and sufficient maturity to control the technology explosion before triggering their own extinction.

While this policy is intended to only bring in peaceful new members, matters change entirely when the confederation is threatened by some unknown entity - is the menace real or imagined? The confederation decides to break with the rules and sends a delegate to Earth to hire one of the supposedly belligerent Earthlings to investigate and to revive the confederation’s long-unused starfleet. The Earthman agrees, but demands a high price: should he succeed, the confederation will have to accept Earth as a new member. As the threat becomes ever more acute, the question soon becomes which mission will prove harder - saving the confederation or convincing it to accept the deal!

The extensive appendix, written in non-technical language, reviews the scientific and technological topics underlying the plot - ranging from the Fermi paradox, space travel and artificial/collective intelligence to theories on possible universal convergences in technological and biological development.

Giancarlo Genta has been full Professor of Construction of Machines since 1987 and taught courses on Astronautic Propulsion, Construction of aircraft engines and motor vehicle technology. Since 1997 he has been Professor of Applied Stress Analysis II at the Master of Science courses of the University of Michigan which are held at the Politecnico di Torino.

His research activity has been focused on those subjects of Applied Mechanics more linked with the construction of machines, and particularly on static and dynamic structural analysis, dynamics of rotating machinery and of controlled systems, magnetic bearings. He is one of the founders of the Interdepartimental Mechatronics Laboratory of Politecnico di Torino, in which he works in the development of magnetic bearings and walking robots and components for spacecraft. Since 2012 he has chaired of study group SG 3.16 of the International Academy of Astronautics addressing a possible Mars mission's exploration, goals, requirements and technologies.

Giancarlo Genta is author of 24 books, 90 papers, published in Italian, American and English Journals and 263 papers presented to symposia. Two of the books are text books of Motor Vehicle Mechanics, Mechanics of Vibration and Mechanics of Space Robots (published in Italian and English), used in Italian and American Universities. Giancarlo Genta has previously co-authored a well received popular science book on space exploration with Michael Rycroft, published by Cambridge University Press. It received very good reviews, including a very favourable one from A.C. Clarke (see his website www.giancarlogenta.it) and a popular science book on the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. He has also written two science fiction novels published in the Science and Fiction series by Springer.